Chapter 1 - The Rule at the Wedding Table
“You eat after everyone else.”
Tabitha Morgan’s voice sliced through the wedding reception so sharply that even the violinist near the ballroom doors stopped moving his bow.
Her palm struck the white tablecloth.
Crystal glasses trembled.
Silverware rattled against porcelain.
Across the table, Taylor Morgan stood frozen in her burgundy gown, a heavy silver tea tray balanced in her right hand and a closed black notebook pressed against her left hip.
Only three hours earlier, she had exchanged vows with Colin beneath an arch of white roses.
Now his mother was treating her like hired help in front of seventy guests.
Tabitha leaned closer, her pearl necklace rising and falling against her throat.
“In this family, the youngest woman serves,” she said. “She eats after the men, after the elders, and after the guests.”
A few people looked down at their plates.
No one defended Taylor.
Colin stood behind the guests, pale and stiff in his tuxedo.
“Mom,” he said weakly. “Stop humiliating her.”
Tabitha turned her eyes toward him.
That was all it took.
His shoulders locked.
His hand dropped.
Taylor watched her new husband surrender without another word.
Something inside her went painfully still.
Tabitha grabbed the empty chair beside her and dragged it away from the table.
The legs screeched across the hardwood floor.
“Then serve the table.”
Taylor’s fingers trembled once beneath the tray.
Then they stopped.
She lowered the silver service with a firm clang and placed the black notebook beside it.
Her expression changed.
The hurt remained.
But beneath it came something colder.
“I’ll follow every rule,” Taylor said.
Tabitha smiled in triumph.
Taylor slid the notebook across the table until it stopped in front of her.
Then she added quietly, “Starting at six tomorrow.”
Tabitha’s smile faltered.
May you like
For the first time that evening, she looked afraid of a closed book.
👉 Tabitha believed Taylor had surrendered—but she had no idea what Taylor planned to do at six the next morning.
